i am dumbfounded.

[jenwebber3]

I know the issue of nitrate is not a new topic. I’ve been reading tons of previous posts and articles, but I’m still baffled with my situation:

a few months back, I had a huge hair algae bloom. I suspected it was the fault of my evil Melanarus Wrasse, since he ate all my snails and crabs.
gave him back to the store, cleaned out what I could, blocked as much sun reflection as I could, lowered time of lights (LEDS, actinic and white, actinic on for 8 hrs, white 6), lowered feeding amount and days (was only feeding once a day, but cut back amount, skip an occasional day). then I lost my beloved cleaner shrimp. I was devastated. checked nitrates, and they were over 30ppm. red. so I started reading. took out my bio balls, even though I’ve had them in my other tank for 4 years and have had no nitrate issues there. but regardless, figured I’d try. started water changes, 10% every other day for 2 weeks. nothing. did a 35% water change, and within an hour, the nitrates were back up to 20 (orange). I took out the ceramic tubes from the sump, leaving just floss and some live rock pieces. I have nothing left in
my sand to siphon up, it’s pretty clean.

it's a 60-gallon up for over 2 years. it is not my only reef, but is my biggest tank. live rock, live sand, roughly 3-gal sump with 700 GPH pump,
2 huge koralia (one in a top corner pointing down, one in the opposite corner pointing up and towards rock), bubbler. protein skimmer that works really well. I use R.O. and instant ocean reef crystals. tested the water, and it measures 0 for bad stuff.

I can try vodka, but I know that’s not a quick fix. I tried a nitrate sponge for 2 months, saw nothing. I put a huge clump of macroalgae from my other tank in on two different occasions, and it literally died overnight into a messy goo. what’s confounding to me is that my ammonia and nitrate measure 0. as an aside, so do my phosphates. calcium around 330. pH 8.2. 16” of fish (biggest fish is a 3” longnose hawk), and the bioload has dropped without the Mel Wrasse.

I am dumbfounded. my mushrooms and polyps are happy as hell (just polyps and mushrooms in this tank, don’t intend it to be full of coral like my other reef), fish seem fine and active and pretty. I know some nitrates are OK and won’t bother the fish, but I need to get them down to be able to add snails and crabs again, yes?

what am I missing? I know I can’t expect an overnight sensation, but it’s been a couple months and nothing has really put a dent in it. i want a cleanup crew again.

I appreciate any helpful thoughts or musings. if you want more info or pics, let me know.

thanks!

 

[BigAl07]

First off I would try getting my water tested by an alternate source just to be on the safe side. Test kits go bad and believe it or not sometimes we make a mistake in testing and it can be repeated. Eliminate testing error first (someone else use their test kit or take water to a reliable LFS and get hard factual #'s). Once you know your test results are accurate then you can start trying to eliminate some other potential problems.

One thing to point out (and this is my own personal opinnion ) is that 30ppm isn't a dire situation when it comes to most of our tanks. Would I like to see 20ppm or less? Absolutely ideally I like to see them stay in the 10-20 range day in and day out. That's just my own personal thoughts there. What I'm trying to say is I don't think 30ppm isn't cause for alarm or drastic actions so don't feel like you need to resort to "Vodka/Carbon" dosing just yet. That could open up a whole other can of worms for you.

I'd suggest a multi-pronged attack to hedge your bets in your favor.

A) Try larger water changes (make sure you understand what a SAFE water change means first). NO3 reduction is directly proportional to the percentage of water change. 10% water change = 10% NO3 reduction.... and if your initial reading is in fact 30ppm you would end up with 27ppm which isn't enough to even bother with. I have no problem with 50% or larger if needed so long as you follow SAFE water change practices. For my 34G tank I did the following schedule of WC one time... Day 1 50%, Day 2 50%, Day 3 50% and I then let the tank stabilize to see just where it all settled at. Below is a rough breakdown of why I say do a few larger WC's:

Initial NO3 = 60ppm
Day 1 post 50% WC 30ppm
Day 2 post 50% WC 15ppm
Day 3 post 50% WC 7.5ppm
After 3 days you should have an NO3 reading of less than 15ppm or so.

Initial NO3 = 60ppm
Day 1 post 10% WC 54ppm
Day 2 post 10% WC 49ppm
Day 3 post 10% WC 44ppm
Day 4 post 10% WC 40ppm
Day 5 post 10% WC 36ppm
Day 6 post 10% WC 33ppm
After 6 days you're still going to be around 33ppm IF your tank is no longer making NO3 (which isn't going to happen in this world lol)

Now keep in mind it's pretty much not possible to read smaller levels on our hobby grade test kits but as you can see if you don't do larger (%) water changes you are going to take a while to get the NO3 down to lower levels.
B) Once you get your NO3 down to an acceptable level don't change anything else but test to determine how quickly they rise back up. Take careful notes because it may be much less than you expect. An established and stable tank can process more organics than most of us realize.

C) Replace/Clean all filter media. It's very possible a forgotten sponge or something could be trapping detritus and adding to your problem.

I know the issue of nitrate is not a new topic. I’ve been reading tons of previous posts and articles, but I’m still baffled with my situation:

a few months back, I had a huge hair algae bloom. I suspected it was the fault of my evil Melanarus Wrasse, since he ate all my snails and crabs.
gave him back to the store, cleaned out what I could, blocked as much sun reflection as I could, lowered time of lights (LEDS, actinic and white, actinic on for 8 hrs, white 6), lowered feeding amount and days (was only feeding once a day, but cut back amount, skip an occasional day). then I lost my beloved cleaner shrimp. I was devastated. checked nitrates, and they were over 30ppm. red. so I started reading. took out my bio balls, even though I’ve had them in my other tank for 4 years and have had no nitrate issues there. but regardless, figured I’d try. started water changes, 10% every other day for 2 weeks. nothing. did a 35% water change, and within an hour, the nitrates were back up to 20 (orange). I took out the ceramic tubes from the sump, leaving just floss and some live rock pieces. I have nothing left in
my sand to siphon up, it’s pretty clean.

it's a 60-gallon up for over 2 years. it is not my only reef, but is my biggest tank. live rock, live sand, roughly 3-gal sump with 700 GPH pump,
2 huge koralia (one in a top corner pointing down, one in the opposite corner pointing up and towards rock), bubbler. protein skimmer that works really well. I use R.O. and instant ocean reef crystals. tested the water, and it measures 0 for bad stuff.

I can try vodka, but I know that’s not a quick fix. I tried a nitrate sponge for 2 months, saw nothing. I put a huge clump of macroalgae from my other tank in on two different occasions, and it literally died overnight into a messy goo. what’s confounding to me is that my ammonia and nitrate measure 0. as an aside, so do my phosphates. calcium around 330. pH 8.2. 16” of fish (biggest fish is a 3” longnose hawk), and the bioload has dropped without the Mel Wrasse.

I am dumbfounded. my mushrooms and polyps are happy as hell (just polyps and mushrooms in this tank, don’t intend it to be full of coral like my other reef), fish seem fine and active and pretty. I know some nitrates are OK and won’t bother the fish, but I need to get them down to be able to add snails and crabs again, yes?

what am I missing? I know I can’t expect an overnight sensation, but it’s been a couple months and nothing has really put a dent in it. i want a cleanup crew again.

I appreciate any helpful thoughts or musings. if you want more info or pics, let me know.

thanks!

 

[Steve L]

Excellent advice from BigAl. All I can add is that if you have cut way back on the feeding and if you don't have any filter media that is trapping food, the only thing left would be excess waste in the sand bed. Perhaps you should try to vacuume it to remove some of the junk that's piled up there for the last 2 years. As Al said, 30ppm isn't really that bad for a FOWLR tank at all. Crabs and snails probably won't be bothered by it until you get to 40-50ppm or higher. My last FOWLR tank reached 80ppm at one time and nothing in there was stressed at all including my CUC. Of course I was feeding the crap out of my fish at that time, but after cleaning the sand bed and dosing with sugar (in addition to water changes) I ended up getting it below 10ppm over a few weeks and keeping it there.

 

[PSU4ME]

+1 on a potentially faulty test kit. A few ways to test it. Try clean water and if it tests at zero then cool. Then mix 50% clean with 50% tank water and you should see 50% of the tank value

Or get it tested by someone else. I use the salifert test kits.

 

[jenwebber3]

thanks big al, i appreciate the thorough answer and will check all that out. i'm using a titration kit that claims to not expire until 2017, but you never know.
steve, i have sucked my sand clean. seriously, the water is almost coming out clear.
i never really test the water in my older reef, since i've had no issues, maybe i should and i'll be surprised to find the nitrates are similar and i'm panicking over nothing; wouldn't be the first time! lol

 

[Snid]

One thing not mentioned is that maybe your source water has Nitrates in it. Even though I use RODI water, my water here at my place has Nitrates in it before I even add it to the tank. It's not much, but it is there. If you have such a case, the water changes you make lose some of their effectiveness.